


Until the Dawn

by fanfoolishness (LoonyLupin), LoonyLupin



Series: Starshine Over Beach City: Moments from Steven Universe [32]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Steven Universe Future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:01:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22828363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoonyLupin/pseuds/fanfoolishness, https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoonyLupin/pseuds/LoonyLupin
Summary: Pearl waits. She doesn’t sleep.
Relationships: Pearl & Steven Universe
Series: Starshine Over Beach City: Moments from Steven Universe [32]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1523993
Comments: 8
Kudos: 113





	Until the Dawn

Pearl doesn’t sleep. 

Oh, Steven tried to teach her, once; a slumber party when they were hunting Malachite. He’d been so delighted that she’d tried, but it had taken her weeks to live down the teasing from Amethyst. She had not been eager to repeat it.

She doesn’t sleep. Instead she prowls through the house in the moonlight; it streams through the holes in the walls and the broken windows. She sweeps the floor again, again, trying to remove every cactus spine, every glass shard, every splinter. She keeps finding more. 

She remembers Amethyst’s voice, small in the temple years ago.  _ We’re bad at this.  _ Garnet, concerned, admitting defeat.  _ We don’t know what he needs. _

She checks her phone hourly, sometimes more. Messages from Greg are frequent, even more pained than her anxious replies. Peridot and Bismuth check in frequently. Lapis, Garnet and Amethyst text back information, the places they’ve checked and searched and found… nothing.

There are no messages from Steven.

Pearl stays busy. She carefully goes through the kitchen, organizing protein shake flavors no one has touched in weeks, throwing out the fresh food going bad in the refrigerator. Her hands are sure, sorting spoiled vegetables slimy in their recyclable bags. 

Every few moments she pauses, head cocked to the side, listening for the sound of the warp pad or the Dondai on the sand. All that greets her is the quiet pulse of waves on the shore. She found them peaceful, once, but now the tides simply echo the emptiness pressing in upon the house.

She sits on his bed sometimes. Remembers watching him sleep, a child round-faced and gentle, a soft smile curving his lips even as he dreamed. She makes the bed nightly. Just in case.

One night she sits on his bed, takes his pillow in her arms, bows over it and rests her chin against it. It smells clean and freshly laundered. It does not smell like him.

Pearl doesn’t sleep. Perhaps it would be easier if she could. 

She holds Steven’s pillow, trembling in the moonlight. She remembers a time they thought that they could help him, and she cries until the dawn.

**Author's Note:**

> So the Steven Universe trailer dropped today and we all might die and I am just terribly, terribly worried.


End file.
